Sunday, March 1, 2009

50% depreciation on a new commercial vehicle purchased between 1st January 2009 and 31st March 2009 in India:


The above advertisement says “Purchase your dream car between 01.01.09 and 31.03.09 and avail depreciation benefit by 50% instead of normal rate of 15%”.

Here is some information about 50% depreciation on a commercial vehicle.

As per Income-Tax (Third Amendment) rules, 2009 - Amendment in new Appendix 1 (Notification no. 10/2009 dated 19-1-2009), New commercial vehicle which is acquired on or after the 1st day of January, 2009 but before the 1st day of April, 2009 and is put to use before the 1st day of April, 2009 for the purposes of business or profession, would be eligible for depreciation at the rate of 50%. This does not apply to second hand vehicle purchased.

“Commercial vehicle” means- heavy goods vehicle, heavy passenger motor vehicle, light motor vehicle, medium goods vehicle and medium passenger motor vehicle but does not include maxi-cab, motor-cab, tractor and road-roller.

Companies and individuals can avail this benefit.

In case of a company or a partnership firm, commercial vehicle should be purchased from its fund and should be registered in the name of its director or partner.

In case of an individual taxpayer, Commercial vehicle means vehicle used for business or profession like Lawyer, doctor, etc do but not salaried employees.

For a vehicle purchased between 1st January 2009 and 31st March 2009, depreciation can be availed for financial year 2009-10 and onwards at same rate of 50%.

The effective rate of depreciation for current FY 2008-09 will be 25% (Half of the prescribed 50%), since the new car will be used for less than 180 days in this year.

The normal 15% depreciation will continue to apply for the vehicles purchased on or after April 1, 2009.

More information on: http://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/
Update 1[Sept 21, 2009]:

The above benefit is extended until September 30, 2009 vides Notification No. 37/2009 dated 21.04.09. By March 2011, you can virtually write-off by way of depreciation nearly 75% of your car. From 2011-12, under the proposed Direct Tax Code depreciation will be only at 15% per annum.

Motor car running and maintenance expenses or depreciation is no longer liable to fringe benefit tax (FBT). The Cost Inflation Index for 2009-10 is 632.